Hooters return to Electric Factory

The Hooters broke out of Philly at an interesting time during which the region had many great rock clubs, such as the Empire, Grendel’s Lair, the Chestnut, Ardmore, and Ambler cabarets, and J.C. Dobbs. But on the national charts, most of the acts were foreign, a la Men at Work, Madness, Vandenberg, the Police, Peter Shilling, Duran Duran and Dexy’s Midnight Runners.

Only Hall and Oates were doing well out of Philly. It had been a couple of years since Philadelphia International ruled the charts with the Trammps, O’Jays, Stylistics, and others. Even Bell Records, home of the Spinners, had slowed down.

And then, suddenly, there were “airplay and repertoire” (A&R) reps scouting for talent. That was the situation when the Hooters were suddenly signed. Via phone, I discussed those days and today with Hooters co-founder and vocalist Rob Hyman.

Hyman reports, “We are marking our 33rd-and-a-third anniversary. It’s still high-energy, in the original keys; it isn’t a laid-back oldies show. I wouldn’t call it a reunion show, although we haven’t played in a while.

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“We do tour consistently overseas at festivals, especially in Germany and Scandinavia. Eric is good with languages — German and Swedish.

“Our audience has migrated to other countries, but Philly is still our home town. We usually did a Thanksgiving show here every year, but this year we didn’t do it, so this sort of makes up for that.”

He continues, “We will have some one-off shows but not as organized as a tour would be. In Germany, we struck a nerve as a live band. We tend to play festivals in the spring and summer. There’s a number of large festivals and the band fits in with that environment well. We’ve actually written and sung in German.”

Hyman speak about the earliest days of the group.

“We are all lifers. We grew up listening to the same music. We had this dream of making it. Maybe, today, because you can do it independently, the goal might be a little different. We had been in a lot of bands that failed.

“This band was a last gasp, as we wanted to form something that was going to work. It’s about chemistry, timing and luck. We were influenced by the two-tone scene, plus bands out of Jamaica and the Police. Then we picked up the accordion and mandolin. We played ‘All You Zombies’ at our very first show.”

Hyman thinks it’s funny how he now needs to tell people that they had the name before the restaurant chain. A hooter is a slang term for a melodica, which is an instrument that was rarely heard on hit records until the Hooters featured it.

The under-appreciated aspect of the Hooters was their support, production and writing for some of the great female talent over the years. Patty Smyth sang on the social awareness song “Where Do the Children Go.” Cindy Lauper’s classic album “She’s So Unusual” is almost a Hooters-plus-Robert-Hazard project with a female lead, and Bazilian discovered Joan Osbourne in a club and wrote “One of Us” for her.

Unlike most male rock groups at the time, they weren’t afraid to back a strong woman, even when they had their own music keeping them busy.

Rob Hyman has a studio wherein he houses some of his many keyboards, once stored away in a warehouse. This Conshohocken base is where David Uosikkinen’s In the Pocket records.

The Hooters’ drummer started In the Pocket to feature the best songs and singers with one band. Proceeds go to Settlement Music School. Hyman loves seeing his drummer become a bandleader.

Still, it is hard not to talk about the old days.

Hyman relates, “We have a lot of stories about playing a song one day and recording it the next day, and in these clubs the bathrooms never worked and the urinal would be falling off the wall. It was rock ’n’ roll.

“We would play four or five nights a week with four or five sets per night and it was boot camp. I remember our first gig in Levittown, putting a couple of our own songs in with the covers that you need to do to get started and keeping the people dancing.

“We never broke up. We are band mates and friends, but we all have side projects. We wear a lot of hats, but the biggest that we wear is being in this band.”